Keep terrorism trials in U.S. courts

On Friday morning in downtown Manhattan, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law appeared in a federal courtroom to be charged with conspiring to kill Americans. In a sober, orderly proceeding that lasted a total of 17 minutes, Judge Lewis Kaplan explained to Suleiman Abu Ghaith his rights, appointed his defense lawyers, read the charges against him, recorded his plea of “not guilty,” ordered the prisoner’s continued detention and announced that he would set a trial date for the case in 30 days.

Prosecutors have already turned over the bulk of their unclassified evidence against the defendant. Abu Ghaith, who was transferred to New York from Jordan on March 3, is reportedly cooperating with federal authorities and providing important information about al Qaeda.

But if senators like John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) had their way, it never would have happened. Instead, observers would likely have been treated years hence to something like what we saw in Guantanamo Bay with the case of the five alleged September 11 co-conspirators: a 13-hour fiasco at which the defendants alternately ignored and yelled at the judge, prayed on the floor, refused to enter a plea and threatened to commit suicide.

On Friday, Graham, Ayotte and McCain issued a public statement saying they were “disturbed” that the Obama administration brought “a foreign member of al Qaeda” to court in New York rather than to a military commission in Guantanamo Bay, saying it “makes our nation less safe.”

That’s nonsense.

No terrorism case brought in the United States since 9/11 has created security problems. Sixty-seven were foreigners captured abroad. At the hearing in New York on Friday, courthouse security operated smoothly and efficiently. Those of us in the courtroom didn’t see a single disruption in the proceedings. The handcuffed defendant was brought into the room by security guards, was seated next to his lawyers and addressed the court respectfully.

Indeed, the stark contrast in the arraignment proceedings in these two complex international terrorism cases heard in New York is typical of the differences in the way cases proceed in civilian federal courts in the United States and the way they proceed in the makeshift military commissions plodding along on a remote U.S. military base in Cuba.

Since the arraignment of the 9/11 defendants, for example, the pre-trial hearings in that case have been dominated by unanswered questions about whether the government is eavesdropping on defense lawyers and unlawfully confiscating privileged attorney-client communications; problems created by an overly complicated audio security system that even the judge doesn’t understand; and defense lawyers’ complaints about the extraordinary challenges of communicating with their clients due to the prison’s remote location.

In federal court on Friday morning, it was clear none of those would be problems in this case. Kaplan – the judge who presided over the trial of Ahmed Ghailani, whom he sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania – was in complete control of his courtroom. Only the usual guards were in the courtroom, and security was never an issue.

As for concerns about protection of classified evidence, Kaplan acknowledged the Classified Information Procedures Act would govern the handling of classified evidence. The government prosecutor promised to report back within 30 days whether it intends to use any.

Unfortunately, since President Barack Obama’s election in 2008, his opponents have claimed he is “soft on terror” because of his faith in the federal court system to do the job it’s been successfully doing for more than two centuries. In the rush to score political points, Obama’s critics ignore that the Guantanamo military commissions, now in their third iteration since the Supreme Court ruled the first version unconstitutional, have been a colossal failure.

In 12 years, the military commissions have convicted only seven individuals. One conviction, of Osama bin Laden’s driver, was recently reversed on appeal. It was overturned for exactly the same reason that a conviction in the Abu Ghaith case would likely be reversed if it were brought in a military commission.

Salim Hamdan, the driver, was convicted for “material support for terrorism” – not traditionally considered a war crime. Since the military commissions only have jurisdiction over war crimes, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in October ruled that the commissions didn’t have the authority to convict Hamdan. Similarly, in this case, Abu Ghaith is charged with conspiracy to kill Americans in 2001 and 2002. Conspiracy has never before been considered a war crime. So any conviction on that charge by the commissions would likely face the same fate in an eventual appeal.

McCain, Graham and Ayotte surely know this. The D.C. court opinion received a significant amount of attention last fall. The claim that Abu Ghaith should have been brought to Guantanamo Bay instead of New York is simply political posturing.

Sadly, this action is again dangerously politicizing a serious matter that goes to the heart of U.S. national security: Whether we use a fair and credible justice system to try suspected terrorists.

Because the military commissions operate offshore and are not publicly accessible, the American public may not realize what a fiasco they’ve been. But like all civilian federal courts in the United States, Kaplan’s courtroom is public – open for all the world to see.

What we saw Friday was something we all can be proud of.

PHOTO (Top) An artist sketch shows Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a militant who appeared in videos as a spokesman for al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 attacks, appearing at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan March 8, 2013. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg

PHOTO (Insert A): A view of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York November 17, 2009. REUTERS/Chip East

PHOTO (Insert B): A U.S. Marshal stands outside the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, November 17, 2009. REUTERS/Chip East

I think the country has watched the Batman movies too much. They’re convinced that terrorists are some sort of mythical uber-villains with special powers who can somehow disrupt the country from within a maximum security prison.

I can’t believe McCain of all people is calling for prisoners of war to be shunted off to a legal limbo where they can waste away indefinitely.

Worried about the budget then ask how much Gitzmo has cost and will continue to cost. Politicians made the Gitzmo mess and are vested in having trials to show their program is a political asset for their careers, it has nothing to do with justice, Gitzmo is all about the politicians preening with accomplishment.

The Obama administration has killed hundreds of Al Qaeda operatives over the past few years via drones–including at least one American citizen. All of a sudden, this guy finds himself in civilian court in New York–assuming all the rights and privileges of afforded to a U.S. citizen.

This is another effort of the Obama administration to try sworn combatants in civilian court versus a military tribunal–same stunt he tried three years ago–when both the people of New York and their elected representatives rejected that option.

As with anything Obama, this is all about politics and his agenda to change America–and amend for our “past sins”. How does the President explain this, when every other player has been either killed outright (including Osama Bind Laden) or confined to Gitmo.

now it needs to be followed up with indicting Donald Rumsfeld for directing US torture squads in Iraq

The Guardian investigation reports that Colonel James Steele, a US special forces veteran, was nominated by Rumsfeld to help organise paramilitaries to quell a growing Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Steele reported directly to Rumsfeld. The paramilitary groups were drawn from Shia militia and set up detention centres where Iraqis were tortured.

From El Salvador to Iraq: Washington’s man behind brutal police squads. In 2004, with the war in Iraq going from bad to worse, the US drafted in a veteran of Central America’s dirty wars to help set up a new force to fight the insurgency. The result: secret detention centres, torture and a spiral into sectarian carnage.

We were viewed and respected around the world as a country with a constitution and a nation of laws. Our judicial system may not be perfect, but, no one has been able to come up with a better one to date. When we decided to legalize torture and get rid of habeas corpus, that is when this country started losing it’s reputation around the world. Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay, and the conservative party has condemned him for not fulfilling that promise without mentioning that it is their party that made it impossible for him to do so by enacting laws that prevented Obama from transferring the detainees to America to be tried in Federal Court. So, the detainees sit at Guantanamo, many of them without even being charged with any crime, indefinitely at taxpayer costs. For those who do not think that these individuals deserve any rights, I say to you that we are country who was founded on a principal that everyone was born with inalienable rights. The Federal Courts are and have successfully handled these types of cases and would continue to do so. These individuals should be tried in Court and their cases resolved. To do nothing is to put us in the same category with those countries where human atrocities are allowed to occur with regularity and no one has any rights. We set out to find the individuals and conspirators to the 9/11 attack. We should have the conviction of following through with charging and bringing these people to trial once and for all. We need to close Guantanamo Bay.